My friend and I tried not to stare at the person in front of us. We had spent a few minutes looking at our menus and this “person” came to wait on us. The problem was we had no idea if it was a boy or a girl. There were so many different clues, declaring both to be true, that we found it impossible to tell. After the person took our order and left our table, we spent a few moments discussing it quietly…sharing the clues each of us had picked up on. There was an “I Love Boys” bracelet. But there was no bra…or anything to fill one. There was the high-pitched voice. But there was the short, cropped hair. We tried to solve this puzzle all through lunch and we just never did. We both left that restaurant still wondering if we were served by a boy or a girl.
This made me wonder…do we make people wonder about our Christianity? When they search for obvious clues can they find them? Or are we confusing people with our signs, so that many people shake their heads and never do really figure out if we are Christians?
She goes to the food bank on Saturdays. But she dresses unseemly and immodestly throughout the week. She goes to church on Sunday. But she was at the bar the night before. He plays in the worship band. But he has an ongoing, angry argument with a family member. He would give you the shirt off of his back. But his language is worse than most truckers.
We are confusing people with our wobbly stance on worldliness and sin. Sure, we all sin. We all make mistakes. But habitual sin and worldliness brings not only heartache for us, but confusion and bewilderment to the unbelievers who are watching us. Are they a Christian? Aren’t they a Christian? Are we sending mixed messages?
I can’t help but wonder if that person who waited on us is happy? I have no idea about the personality or background of this person. Why he OR she chose to live in the middle…somewhere between man and woman. But I do know that straddling ourselves between two opposite sides is a painful, tense place to be.
Let’s declare our Christianity and then make sure our actions match that declaration. Let’s live for the Lord and cast our own worldly desires aside…so that when someone is watching us, we can be certain they will say, “there goes a Christian.”
We all live too much like the World sometimes for anyone to be able to even tell if we are Christians. We need to different (in a good way). We must be that light on a hill that others can see.